MR. SNOW: All right, welcome. Let me just start with a couple of
little items of business here, and then we'll go to questions. Those of
you who are eating, you may proceed through the line and shout out
whatever you want.

First, the Department of Commerce has released the latest numbers on
wages. Productivity growth continues to be strong. It's 2.4 percent
over the past four quarters. Hourly compensation is averaging 5.7
percent over the last four quarters.

Today the President got up, had his normal intelligence briefing. He
also had briefings from the National Security Advisor and the Homeland
Security Advisor. And I believe they're working on a dock today. There
will also be other adventures in the afternoon.

Questions.

Q They're working on a dock?

MR. SNOW: They're working on a dock.

Q They have a lake?

MR. SNOW: I believe that there is no waterway directly to the ocean, so
I think a lake or a pond would be a more likely option. (Laughter.)

Q Tony, what do you think about this Lebanese proposal to deploy
15,000 troops into southern Lebanon? The Israelis called it an
interesting step.

MR. SNOW: Steve was asking about a reported proposal by the Lebanese to
deploy 15,000 troops. I think also with the UNIFIL troops. Obviously,
interested in taking a look at it. As you know, there are three Arab
diplomats have shown up in New York, the foreign ministers of the United
Arab Emirates and Qatar, along with Amr Moussa the head of the Arab
League. And there will be discussions today in the Security Council;
the U.S. and the French also have been talking about ways forward.

We certainly welcome any help in trying to figure out how to supplement
the Lebanese armed forces and get us to one of the key goals in Lebanon,
which is to permit the government of Lebanon to assert full control over
the south, and also to prevent Hezbollah from asserting independent
control. So those are all items that are going to be under discussion
in the next day, and who knows how long it's going to go. But,
obviously, it's a topic of conversation in the U.N. and will continue to
be.

Jim.

Q Tony, I assume that if the Lebanese army was strong enough to have
taken control without any multinational help, anytime in the last
however many years, they would have done so. So is it fair to say that
the administration would be skeptical of this idea?

MR. SNOW: I think it would be safe to say that the administration
understands that the Lebanese armed forces is going to need some help,
and we're working with allies to try to figure out the proper way to do
it, and also with the Lebanese government, which clearly has the
strongest interest not only in making sure it's done effectively, but
it's done in a way they see fit and proper.

Q Does the administration view this latest proposal by Lebanon as a
setback to getting this resolution moving along?

MR. SNOW: No, no. We do not view it as a setback. As the President
said yesterday in the hanger, and he's said on a number of occasions,
diplomacy takes time. And you've got a lot of interested parties here
who have their own views on how to proceed. And the real challenge now
is to work forward in a manner consistent with the principles that not
only the President laid out on the 12th of last month, but that were
reiterated by the G8 and in Rome and in the draft resolution put
together by the U.S. and the French.

So I think everybody is really still pulling in the same direction.
There are a lot of ideas about how best to get there.

Wendell.

Q One of our reports got from an administration source this line, "It
is a line in the stand for the United States that there has to be an
international force deployed alongside the Lebanese in the south." Is
that inaccurate?

MR. SNOW: I think we've always said that there is going to be a force
to supplement the Lebanese armed forces. I'm not going to react to blind
quotes from unnamed administration officials about lines in the sand; I
don't think that's particularly helpful. I think the whole point is to
try to find out a way for forces to be able to supplement the Lebanese
armed forces, so that they can, in fact, be effective in the southern
part of Lebanon.

I think there's a recognition that they will require some supplemental
forces, and the question is, under what auspices that is done.

Q Can I ask you, on a different topic, last week the Senate rejected
the nomination of Richard Stickler at the Mine Safety and Health
Administration. What's the White House's plan going from here? Is the
President planning to do a recess appointment?

MR. SNOW: You have to let know earlier on ones like that, Nedra. I'll
go back and work the phones. I have no earthly clue.

Q Tony, Russia says that if there's a stalemate on this U.N.
resolution for any meaningful length of time they'd like to see an
immediate resolution calling for a humanitarian truce, kind of give
everyone a breather while the negotiations go on.

MR. SNOW: Again, I --

Q The United States has made it very clear that it wants a
comprehensive solution, not some immediate --

MR. SNOW: I think the Russians have been generally supportive of the
draft we've put together with the French, and I'm just not going to get
into assessing public statements at this point, especially about a
hypothetical situation. There's a lot of very active diplomacy going on
right now, and the Russians are among those involved.

Peter.

Q Can you address the report yesterday by AP about the new draft
immigration rules for Cuba that the administration is putting together?

MR. SNOW: Yes, basically, you know, we don't comment on ongoing -- let
me confirm this, that there are drafts, and people are trying to think
about what is going to happen should there be a change in the political
situation in Cuba. But there is no change in policy, and that's the most
important thing to keep in mind.

The Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State and other
portions of the government are taking a clear look and monitoring
closely the situation ongoing in Cuba. But as the President also has
said, and Secretary Rice, right now we're encouraging everybody not only
to stay put, but urging Cubans to stay on the island, and work toward
democracy. Beyond that, no specific comment about particulars mentioned
in that story.

Q Why is there a need for a change in policy at all?

MR. SNOW: The only -- again, you're talking about a contemplated change
that, in turn, would be in response to a change that has not yet taken
place. I think you can all agree that if there is a change, a dramatic
change in the political situation in Cuba, there may be adjustments in
U.S. policy. Helms-Burton and other things are going to be revisited --
you would think that -- but, on the other hand, there is no change in
policy to date.

But it is typical, traditional and important for a government to start
thinking, okay, if various changes take place, what sort of adjustments
should we make, and people present ideas. And the fact that somebody
has presented an idea does not mean that there has been a change in
policy, it means that you have an obligation constantly to think ahead
domestically and internationally, and I daresay that if there were
changes in Cuba and we had not thought ahead, the question would be, why
didn't you think about changes that might be taking place.

Sheryl.

Q Tony, Kofi Annan released a letter today saying that there were
grounds for an inquiry into whether Israeli air strikes constituted a
pattern in violating international law. Does the President think there
are grounds for such inquiry?

MR. SNOW: I'm really not going to respond to that. I mean, the
Secretary General was speaking for himself. At this point, the real
work at the United Nations is to try to figure out how to have a
cessation of hostilities in a way that's going to lead to peace and
democracy in Lebanon, and we welcome General Secretary Annan's help in
achieving that goal.

Q Tony, to what extent has the President gotten involved in this
Alaska oil pipeline stoppage, and how concerned are you about the impact
on people who are already hard-pressed by what they're already paying
for gasoline?

MR. SNOW: A couple of points. Sam Bodman did a press conference on
this not too long ago, and apparently, at this point, the supplies are
-- we're actually in a pretty good supply situation, but he has also
said that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would be made available if
necessary. But it looks like we're running some, like, 5 million
barrels a day, in terms of supplies, better than we were at this point
last year.

Having said that, what's going on, really, is the result of some actions
the administration took a while ago. And I'll give you a little bit of a
timetable that helps you put this in context. There was a leak
discovered by a BP crew in March, on March 2nd. That's the first leak
of the pipeline that we know of. Shortly after that, the pipeline and
hazardous materials safety administration issued an enforcement action
directing BP to improve corrosion management on some of those pipelines.
Later on it followed up with a series of other guidelines, including
trying to make sure that there was what they called pipeline inspection
gauges -- PIGs, in the parlance -- to try to figure out the integrity of
those pipelines. That led to the discovery a few days ago of weakness
in some of the pipelines, which has led to the interruption.

Now, our first priority is to make sure that there is continued safe
operation of the pipelines coming out of the North Slope. The
Department of Transportation has a team of investigators onsite, right
now, to assess the situation. They're going to have an evaluation.
They are issuing new compliance orders -- statutorily you can do that --
and they've already issued two compliance orders, I just mentioned that,
the one in March and a follow-on in July. They're going to outline
steps that the company has to take to make sure that the pipelines are
safe to be carrying oil.

We're happy that BP finally is making progress in addressing concerns
which have been discussed with it in the past. And we're also in the
process of accelerating the rule-making process that would enable the
creation of a robust regulatory regime over those pipelines. As you
probably know, the low-pressure pipelines -- and that's what these are,
these are relatively low-volume pipelines -- have not had the kind of
federal oversight that the high-volume pipelines have had. And the
administration is working quickly to get that into place.

At this point, obviously -- we've also been working with -- we've had
contact with the governments of Saudi Arabia and Mexico. If there are
supply shortages, they have agreed to help us in trying to address
those. At this point, no refineries have reported shortages in
petroleum, but, obviously, if those become a factor, we will address it
and address it vigorously and in a timely manner.

Q And how concerned are you about the impact on prices?

MR. SNOW: Well, I think any time you have a price increase, you want to
try to address the root cause, and the root cause here is trying to go
at it and deal with the pipeline integrity. On the other hand, I think
what you're going to see -- well, you know what, I don't want to
interpret what's going to go on with the prices. The important thing is
that there does not seem to be a significant supply interruption at this
point. We obviously want to get those pipelines up and running
effectively as quickly as possible. But, again, they have to be
operating in a way that is safe and also environmentally sound.

Q Just to follow up, Tony, when were these conversations with Saudi
Arabia and Mexico?

MR. SNOW: I don't know precisely when, but they've obviously been in
the last couple of days.

Q They have promised to help out if we have --

MR. SNOW: Well, that's according to Secretary Bodman, yes.

Q Is the President concerned that these oil companies who are
enjoying record profits right now are not doing enough to invest in
sustaining their infrastructure to avoid situations like this?

MR. SNOW: I don't think the President -- I'm not sure that the
President is -- let's take a couple of looks. First, most of the oil
companies working on the North Slope have had a pretty vigorous and
regular regime of inspecting the pipelines and looking at it. The
pipelines we're talking about have not been -- apparently have not had
one of these pipeline inspection gauges run through it in 16 years. The
normal course is to do it every other week. So, certainly, there is
concern about making sure that that is the case.

Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission, as you know, is taking a
constant look at the oil companies to make sure not only that there's no
price gouging at the corporate level, but also down to the gas station
level, and we will continue those regular efforts to make sure.

Q But what does the federal government do to ensure, though, that
these PIGs are going through as they should be, not every 16 years?

MR. SNOW: Well, that's -- again, this was an unregulated pipeline, as I
mentioned before. We're in the process now of doing a rule-making that
would, in fact, make those pipelines that are not presently subject to
that kind of a regulatory regime subject to it.

Victoria.

Q Tony, there's a new Washington Post poll out today as to which
political party people would trust to do a better job handling the U.S.
campaign against terrorism? And Democrats got 46 percent, Republicans
got 38 percent. Are you concerned that in this particular category, in
which Republicans have always done better than Democrats, here, as well
as in other categories, Republicans are falling behind?

MR. SNOW: For the umpteenth time, I will remind you that the President
is not trying to conduct foreign policy in the war on terror in response
to public opinion polls, but to the realities on the ground, and I am
sure that that is going to be an important consideration voters are
going to have to make this November: Who really does take seriously the
threat of the war on terror; do they acknowledge or not that terrorists
are still trying to hurt Americans and American interests around the
globe; and who has the most credible way of addressing it. And that is
a debate we look forward to having.

Q Could you just be a little bit more specific about what it is that
Saudi Arabia and Mexico have agreed to do? I just want to make sure we
have --

MR. SNOW: I've told you everything I know. The best thing to do is to
-- I'd direct you to the Department of Energy, which has had these
conversations. Again, there has been an offer of assistance if we have
some shortages, petroleum shortages, that they apparently have offered
to help But I don't want to get ahead of myself. I'd recommend calling
DOE.

Q So you don't know the specifics of whether there's a trigger, in
terms of the number of lost barrels or whatever?

MR. SNOW: I know nothing beyond what I've told you.

Q Does that indicate that they're not really, then, supplying stuff
at capacity? I mean, we were under the impression everybody was pretty
much tapped out, that's why oil prices were so high to begin with.

MR. SNOW: No, oil prices were high for a couple of reasons. Obviously,
there is vigorous global competition, and also there are jitters about
what's going on in the Middle East, Wendell. But, in terms of the
vagaries of how much excess capacity, again, talk to the experts, not
the White House Press Secretary.

Q Demand is not the reason?

MR. SNOW: No, demand is a serious reason, I just said that. There is
not only demand here, but demand around the globe. I just am not
competent to give you an assessment of what sort of swing capacity may
still be available with the Saudis, the Mexicans or others.

Q Does the President plan to have any meetings with congressional
leaders on immigration between now and Labor Day, or any calls?

MR. SNOW: Don't know. All I'm doing is tracking what we're doing this
week. The President has had a number of meetings with congressional
leaders. And I suspect -- well, I don't even want to try to guess,
because if I try to speculate, I could say something that later turned
out not to be true, and we wouldn't want that.

Q What about this afternoon? You said there will be something more
this afternoon?

MR. SNOW: I believe there will be hundred degree club activities later
in the afternoon.

Q I see, not some presidential appearance that we're going to be
summoned to?

MR. SNOW: Not that I'm aware of.

Q Will you report back to us --

MR. SNOW: If you are summoned, we will make sure that you are duly
informed.

Q We'll expect a full report on the hundred degree club.

MR. SNOW: Anything else?

Q Has the President had any conversations lately with President Fox
about the situation in Mexico?

MR. SNOW: I'm not aware of any. I do not think that he has had --
there are no foreign leader calls today. I think his last conversation
with President Fox was a few weeks ago. I think it was right after the
original announcement of election results.

Q And Tony, one more thing, the Joe Lieberman election, the primary
is today. How closely is the President watching that race. And is he
concerned at all that if Lieberman loses the primary, he would lose a
supporter of the Iraq war in the Senate?

MR. SNOW: I think the President is going to stay out of the business of
trying to characterize what goes on in a Democratic primary. But I
think it's safe to say that there are several Democratic primaries that
are of interest around the country, and people are keeping a close eye
on, and the President is one of them.